I have been told that my way of thinking about our animals is anthropomorphism, pure and simple. I know that is a long word but it’s pretty simple. It means thinking that animals act and think like humans. Actually it means a lot more but thats the chapter and verse that I am always accused of. Well the bottom line is that Mrs. Goose, (or Thang 2, or Knothead 2) was hit by a vehicle in the street in front of our house a couple weeks ago. She was too big to miss and to slow to complicate things. It was no accident. The above picture is her the first time we thought she was dead (she was laying an egg). As usual I can find a reason to blame the government for all this. As a government employee for much of my adult life I know that it’s expected. The ditch on the other side of the street is always full of water. Since it breeds pests and disease with stagnant water, it also provides food and entertainment for our geese and ducks. Unless you want to raise these critters in a pen there isn’t any way to keep water birds out of the ditch. It needs to have drainage.

Doing bed check on Sally and I

Knowing that Geese are monogamous I wondered what was going to happen next. As usual, I looked for human traits first. I rather expected Mr. Goose was going to go through at least three of the five stages of grief. I think I can make a case that it did indeed happen. First he went all over the place apparently looking for her. It seemed to me to be a type of denial because he knew exactly where to find her. Then he seemed listless for a few days and I was just hoping he wasn’t going to try a suicide by car like his lady had. I have to think that was depression. When we lost Blue the reaction by her offspring included Anger. I was unable to find that with Mr. Goose.A funny thing is that I had told everyone that the goose was very protective and aggressive when his lady friend started laying eggs. The one that caught it the worst was Indy. Now if you run from him he will chase you but otherwise since he became a widower he has not been aggressive. In fact that leads me to a change of behavior that I just find amazing.

When Indy is outside the goose is hanging around him. He isn’t honking or being aggressive. It’s just like he wants to be friends.

Do you come here to play often?

Indy would rather he would leave him alone but doesn’t get aggressive. Now instead of telling him how to toe the line, Mr. Goose just wants to be close to him. I can hear Mr. Rogers singing: Won’t you be my neighbor. Somehow, I think he has hit three out of the five stages of grief. If this isn’t acceptance I don’t know what is.

I always feel bad when one of our animals dies. I guess if you wanted to prove that life goes on this will do it.